secretly a muslim. is there a war on islam or not here? this cover of "newsweek" to explain that part of that narrative. >> we're going to continue this discussion on our website. rula, thank you for joining me tonight. romney's mad men. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews down in washington wishing everyone celebrating rosh hashanah is happy new year. let me start tonight with the danger of running for president without knowing why. that appears to be mitt romney's situation or predicament.

it's the reason his campaign is out of whack. president obama was talking to a wealthy group of supporters, talking about the other america, the one that obama was serving when he dumped the work requirement for welfare. what does it tell us that romney not only runs tv ads but uses it to back up his wealthy contributors? the poor of this country are just freeloaders off society, the bulk of the political support is made up of such freeloaders? david corn is author of "showdown" which comes out tomorrow and joan walsh is author of "what's the matter with white people." let's watch, listen, and decide. >> all anybody said was, don't worry how do we convince everybody that they have to take care of themselves?

>> well, 47% who are with him, who are dependent and entitled to health care, food, you name it and they will vote for this president no matter what and the president starts off with 48, 49 -- he starts off with a huge number. these are people who pay no income tax. 47% of americans pay no income tax. so our message of low taxes doesn't connect. he'll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. that's what they sell every four years. and so any job is not to worry about those people. i'll never convince them.

they are independents voting one way or the other, playing on emotion, whether they like the guy or not. >> now, this was a fund-raiser. how long ago was it? >> it was after he clenched the nomination. i say that and i'm protecting the source of the video and what is striking about this is he's not only saying that there are poor people entitled to food or whatever, he says that all of obama's supporters are moochers and parasites and he has to get the 5 or 6% that are not and combine them with republicans. there are two americans that are strivers in the room, people who have success and take personal responsibility. 47% of this country won't take responsibility for themselves and they want a hand out from government.

>> so it was beyond dog whistles and using health care. only a dozen people in the room, he's saying what he believes about half of america. >> you know, this strikes me with barack obama, claiming guns and religion. most have an old habit that they've got to break, in this case very well off people talking about cultural vote so way. all politicians don't do this. some do they get caught talking in a way that would be terrible embarrassing described as moochers. >> well, a couple of points. you referred to president obama during the pennsylvania primary, audio, not video, and he spoke about people who have lost their jobs or are facing unemployment and cling to their guns, their

bibles, their religion and feel an antipathy and therefore oppose free trade and immigration. so it was very damaging to him and still is damaging to this day. here you have mitt romney caught in a similar circumstance on video. >> what was his perspective talking to this audience in this thing they just captured? >> it's hard to imagine or conclude, i should say, what is in his mind. partly he could be saying, look, i need your help because 47% of the people will never support me because they support obama, president obama because they rely on government, because they have this attitude towards government. it could be that he is speaking as a pundit. this is his analysis of the battleground. i'm just giving you one benign explanation. >> it would be a right-wing pundit. joan, when i saw this, what i

saw -- and you know i've always talked about the dog whistle, you run ads about welfare and romney went out further and said he was doing that to shore up his space. getting rid of the poor requirement to help blacks vote for him. and here you have a guy talking to people, it seems to me, in a similar fashion saying, you know, those people are just basically living off government. they will never change was he playing that or believing it in. >> it sounds to me very much like he believes it. it doesn't sound to me like he's playing a role at all. i cannot see into his heart. the really astonishing thing is what david said. is he talking about one half of our country with utter contempt. he's writing them off, talking about them as parasites and moochers and the rare opportunity for the democrats here, chris s. that is he

talking about a large segment of the republican base. like it or not, there are a lot of white people, older white people in that category as well. so they've gone from stigmatizing and doing this dog whistle stuff to now it's just crystal clear. there just aren't that many. i think the country is 12% black. if you're talking about 47% of the electorate, it's equal opportunity contempt. it's hugely damaging. >> jim mecina of the campaign has said this about romney's comments. it's shocking that a candidate for the president of the united states would go behind closed door and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half of the american people view themselves as victims, entitled to handouts and are unwilling to take personal responsibility for their lives. it's not my job to care about those people. we can never convince they

should take personality responsibility and care for their lives. he's saying, andrea, how does anybody deal with that? >> that is the most damaging part of it because he's suggesting not only that he can't get their votes but that he has responsibility to them as a future leader. now, let me just say, as joan just pointed out, that most people on food stamps are white. so he's speaking to a he have -- about a very broad segment. >> when he's talking to white people, that's now not how they say it. >> mitt romney wants to help all americans struggling in the obama campaign as the governor has made clear he's concerned about the growing number of people dependent on the federal government, including the record number of people on food stamps, nearly one in six americans in

poverty and 20 million americans struggling to find work. mitt romney's plan creates 12 million jobs in four years and that's a general statement. it doesn't quite refute whatever damage is to be made here. >> it can't refute. these are his words. i think you picked out a key sentence for a guy running to be president who says we have too much divisiveness. what do you want me to do? the statement here doesn't take issue with what he said. >> let's talk about that tape. is it your guess or estimate now, joan, that the democrats, the campaign of barack obama will get this tape out because it will enrage the base, if you will, people being disdainfully talked about here, as handouts, moochers, freeloaders, being described in that relatively tough language by a president

for language, will that be useful in the obama campaign? >> i think it will be hugely useful. it revs up their base. too many white working class voters have take then bill of goods that republicans are going to help them when all they have to offer is tax cuts. >> thank you so much. andrea mitchell, joan walsh, and david corn. politico described the dysfunction of romney's campaign itself when staffers blame one another for romney losing ground. is it too late for romney to change course and deal with this problem we just showed you? plus, if you can't impress the voters, you suppress them, right? we're going to show you how hard republicans have made it for democrats to vote in my home state of pennsylvania.

and live from new york, it's saturday night. "snl" has a mock anti-bain commercial. >> i got hired part time at an orange julius until bain acquired that and .ut not the whole company, you understand, just that one store. >> this is "hardball," a place for politics.

i've got some fresh poll numbers in the presidential race. let's check the "hardball" scoreboard nationwide. a new university poll of likely voters shows a three-point edge for president obama. nationwide, 48% to 45%. in virginia, president obama leads mitt romney by 5% among likely voters. a good sign. that's essentially the same margin the president had in that poll a month ago. now to michigan where a new poll

has the president up 46%/44%. that's too close for comfort. that's a state he needs. that poll has consistently been close to other polls in michigan. finally to pennsylvania which looks more like safe ground for obama. a new poll from the philadelphia enquirer shows the president with an 11-point lead. heard about that today. 50%/39%. tomorrow night at 7:00 eastern we will have the brand new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll complete with the big presidential match-up. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] it seems like every company

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welcome back to "hardball." he's been running for president for five years now, but today the romney campaign is signaling a midcourse correction in messaging and strategy. this comes on the heels of a "new york times"/cbs news poll this weekend showing president obama surpassing mitt romney on who will do a better job of handling the economy and unemployment. romney lacks a bottom line. it was all laid out for everyone to see in a devastating lead story in politico today,

describing a dysfunction campaign where losing air but not sure what to do about it. i'm joined by politico's editor and joy-ann reid, the romney campaign's missteps you described the dysfunction this that campaign. >> right. it's based internally on the campaign and externally among with stewart stevens and this lack of having a campaign message, the lack of having a plan to use the conventions and then use the time afterwards, this period between the conventions and the debates to really define romney with specificity, to show how he would govern barack obama.

as you've talked about on your show last week, conservative after conservative, starting with "the wall street journal," trent lot, many others have gone you on the record to say, come on, we want specificity. we want a war of ideas, and we're not getting it from you. and i think that has had a ripple effect internal will why people who are privately uneasy are being more vocal about how uneasy they are with the direction of the campaign. >> let's take a look at some of the that criticism. it is mounting of the romney campaign from the right. here is what eric erickson, a conservative blogger for red state wrote this morning. quote, team romney seems so scared of being more unliked than he is already that they refuse to actually pound a consistent, hard hitting message. negatives be damned, his message is too muddled for voters to be anything other than confused. jennifer reuben, a conservative blogger who appears in "the washington post" wrote this, the problem, and there is one, in the mitt romney camp is not the lack of policies or the wrong policies. if a campaign is too cautious, too afraid of a misstep, too

anxious to retreat when the mainstream media howl, too slow to you'll lies the stories of the day and too intent on trimming its sails, the campaign will not succeed. joy, my contention, it may not be yours, is that the reason he's incoherent, the reason he's so scared of offending the right is that he's in bed with the right. he needs those supporters. he's not a real gut right winger, sort of a political opportunist, but his attorney is saying anything that offends grover norquist. he's so scared of offending his keepers that he gets very hesitant generally. >> chris, i call it the endless primary. this guy is constantly trying to appeal to the right to tell them he's one of them. look, and you will relate to this having worked with tip o'neill, the bottom line is i have been campaign staff, been communications staff, you can do a lot for a candidate but you can't give them a core. the staff can't give you a core. you have to come into the campaign with it. and the problem for mitt romney

is that the only thing that seems to be at his core is ambition, the ambition to be president. but he didn't come into this race with a set of idealogical principles worth fighting for, so he's just adopting whatever principles his base says are important. and the base wants more than just someone to mouth the words. they actually wanted their ideas put to the fore and debated in the public arena. they feel like the political people constantly hide true conservative ideas because they're afraid they will be unpopular. now they're seeing that played out in mitt romney's campaign. >> talk about -- jim, talk about the writing -- you know, everybody remembers the great acceptance speeches. nixon even had some fabulous ones in '60 and '68 and reagan had a dynamite one. they're known to be sort of like jack kennedy introduced his new concept in the acceptance speech. the acceptance speech of romney has been like chinese food, it's worn off quickly. i can't remember the words from it except the nice words which you cite about his father george leaving a rose at the bedside

table of his wife every morning for her to see when she gets up. what a -- it didn't tell you much about mitt, but it told you wonderful things about his dad. except for that apparently they didn't have a coherent message in putting that speech together among the speech writers in your article. >> right. and it was sort of slapped together at the last second. they had to scrap early versions because stuart stevens and the candidate didn't like what they saw. what they ended up with was a speech that at the time everyone thought was a pretty good speech but in retrospect i think it's been picked apart in two areas. one, it really lacked in the type of specificity, the war of ideas stuff, that conservatives are really hungry for, and then for whatever reason it never mentioned the troops, never mentioned afghanistan, never mentioned al qaeda. and to a lot of conservatives national security -- to them it was inexplicable. it's inexcusable. those two things have been the things that are sort of the taste that sticks in the mouth after that speech. >> what's -- >> there wasn't really that much of a bounce.

>> what's still there? i think acceptance speeches are when your party says you should be president. i thought it had thunder to some extent compared to all his other addresses. he had some strength there. he was comfortable with it, but it didn't seem to leave a message. i don't think i can remember what the message was. >> yeah. and nor really can i, which i think is a big issue. it's not just a speech, it was the convention. i think they did a good job of showcasing the next generation of republican leaders. i thought they did a good job of making the case against barack obama. but the speech didn't leave you with this sense that, yes, this is mr. fix-it, i get it, i get his theory of the case. and i get what that fix looks like. it's one thing to say, you know what? my tub, it won't drain, watt thor won't drain. we know that but how are you going to fix it? that's what i think people were looking for from mitt romney and, listen, there's still time. you know, we're talking about what a bad campaign people think he's running. he's still within a couple

percentage points against an incumbent president who has a bad economy, bad on employment, a lot of bad figures from the size of the annual deficits to the number of people on food stamps. a lot of stuff that romney could work with if he wants to say, hey, you need change and here is the change i'm going to give you. >> okay. he has that, but i think things are beginning to be more optimistic ever since bill clinton's speech at the convention where that was the catalyst or not, people feel a little better about things getting better. anyway, romney was asked today about that politico piece you wrote in an interview with telemundo. here is what he had to say in response. let's watch, to your piece. >> i've got a terrific campaign. my senior combine people work extraordinarily well together. frankly, these process stories take away from what's really of concern to the american people. >> no changes in your campaign -- >> no, i have got a good team.

>> let me go to -- do you want to respond? these process pieces. a minute with you here. to me that piece talked a lot more than -- there was a lot of backstory there, a lot of importance. you wrote about process, sure, about how the campaign can't have a coherent message. the biggest message was it doesn't have a clear sense of why he's running. joy, do you want to jump in here. he called it a process piece. that's an interesting shot. >> chris, it was interesting. that was a ceo talking to his board of directors about why they had a bad quarter and explaining it away. that was not a guy who can explain to you at his core, at his gut why he wants to be president and what he thinks the country should be doing differently than it's doing now. that's what romney lacks. there's a thing that campaign staff does and jim probably knows about this, probably written about it, where you float an op-ed. you write an op-ed piece and you find someone to sign it. the romney campaign is an op-ed piece finding someone to sign it

and he's just the signatory. he's a ride along to his own campaign. romney needs to get in his gut why do you want to be president? because that's what the american people want to know if you're looking at replacing the president who is already there. >> there's a larger question here, jim, as you cover the campaign. that there are things he wants to do or is willing to do he doesn't want to share right now. for example, what he wants to cut, what tax breaks he wants to eliminate. >> yeah. i mean, it's a predicament he's in. i think it is heart of hearts and i have talked to enough people who talk to him all the time, that he really does believe he would be an effective leader, would probably govern from the middle in a way that would be offensive to a lot of conservatives. >> there's a larger question as you cover the campaign, there are things that he wants to do, willing to do that he doesn't want to share right now?

>> i think you have a fair critique based on his pattern in massachusetts. >> but he's disowned that. totally disowned that. >> it is a problem with his campaign that we have two candidates. you have to hold barack obama's feet to the fire on this one as well. we have two candidates who really aren't telling us much at all about how they'll govern. people ask me all the time, will president obama govern as a liberal or as a centrist? we get paid to figure this out, and i don't know the answer to it. he's not talked with much specificity about how he's going to manage the government, about how he's going to deal with all the kick the can policies that expire at the end of the year, the tax breaks, the spending cuts that kick in, the medicare doc fix. this isn't make believe. it's real stuff, and we have two candidates who don't talk at all about it.

on both sides. >> but, chris, if jim vandehei is correct, then you're going to see an eruption from the right unlike anything you have seen right now. if they start to believe that romney is just rolling them, that he's just saying that he'll govern as a conservative, then he's going to have an even bigger rebellion on his hands because that's not what he's telling them even with the ryan pick. he's promising them that once he becomes president, their principles will be actionable in governance. if that's not true, i think he's got an even bigger problem on his hands. >> jim, i think the problem with being a fast dealer like you're suggesting he might be, someone who will use the right to be elected but then operate from the middle, is you have to have tremendous stature on the right to pull that off. like nixon did on going to china. you can't be like george herbert walker bush who didn't have stature on the right. the minute he went down on that deal on taxes and spending, the minute he cut that deal and violated his read my lips promise from the convention, they killed him. don't you have to be a legitimate man of the right or

the left to be trusted by them to go to the center. if you're a guy they never really trusted, if they go we thought he would do that and there he goes, your thoughts. >> i don't think people understand why he picked paul ryan. people thought it was because he was going to have this war of ideas. he picked paul ryan because he was thinking about this in the context of governance. he knows if he has paul ryan on his ticket, if he were to win the white house, he has one conservative who has authentic credibility with the most conservative people in the country which are house republicans and that it would give him some capacity, some wiggle room to cut a deal. i'm not saying he's going to govern as bill clinton. i'm just saying i don't think he's going to go in there and govern from the hard right. i think -- >> this is exciting stuff we're talking about. this is the reason this campaign is fascinating. >> you wouldn't know it. >> a lot of people think romney is to the left. some on the right think president obama is to the left of how he presents himself. here is my last question to you. if paul ryan is nagging him to

be unleashed, why do you have any faith he will give him cover to move to the center? >> well, i think -- >> what gives you hope -- >> think about what you have to do, we could spend the next 20 minutes on this. think about what happens after this election. you have all of those tax cuts that expire and you have automatic spending cuts that kick in. it means congress will have to do some kind of global deal, whether it's simpson/bowles or something else. it has to be done in a four to five month period. as part of that you have a real opportunity to do entitlement reform. if you think about the ryan plan, there are components of it that you could put into a broader deal. they would be very appealing to conservatives that don't kick in for a decade but start to give you some semblance of stability or possibility of stability for medicare in the long term that would resonate with the ryan crowd, would look different from what the ryan plan looks like today, but there are pieces that you can piece together. it's like the health care plan. you could repeal the obama health care plan, retain some of

the provisions. that's why when mitt romney said he would retain the provision to cover people up to 26, he probably would. there are components they would want to retain. you can piece it together. i'm babbling. >> you're great. especially with joyce, i will quote to you the words of the great jesse of california, you have to be cynical and make deals to get elected and do what you have to do. he said if you can't sleep with their women, drink their booze, and take their money and vote against them the next morning, you don't belong in this business. that's the way politicians look at things. i'm not sure romney is that cynical. he might be. thank you jim vandehei, thank you joy ann reed. coming up next, why are these

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back to "hardball" and now to the sideshow. snl was back with the season premier. here's its take on clint eastwood. >> no set tour dates, no predetermined theaters, just american legend clint eastwood performing one half of a conversation with an irritated and foul-mouthed barack obama. it's the show audiences are giving a sitting ovation. obama is not the only politician in the hot seat. don't miss clinton making taking it to jimmy carter. >> just let people drink soda. >> and chris christie. >> i think we're going to need a bigger chair. >> it's eastwood and chair. >> next, the "snl" take on what happens when bain capital comes to town.

>> after bain capital shut down the mill, i was out of work for a year. >> mitt romney and bain capital bought the text mile mill where raymond had worked for 18 years. >> next i worked for a trucker and then bain came along and bought the trucking company and bought that, too. i then got hired part time at orange julius until bain shut that company down. just that one store. at this point i said to myself, what the hell is going on here? i got a job at a shoe sign stand under an assumed name working just for tips. but bain somehow found out, bought the business, and moved it to china. >> each time raymond mccoy got a new job, mitt romney and bain capital closed down the company for the sole purpose of laying him off. >> there is much more to come, you can be assured of that.

next, guess what crowded business owners have two sets of business plans for the holiday season, one if president obama gets re-elected and one if mitt romney wins the election. gun retailers responding to the concern that president obama will put stricter gun laws in place if he gets a second term. "the wall street journal" talked to some people in the guns and ammo business and found that, quote, if mr. obama wins a second term, they are preparing for a surge in sales from buyers fearful the president would back policies to make buying a gun more difficult. well, a spokesman for one retailer got more specific saying, if mitt romney is elected and there's no perceived threat on the freedom to own guns, people might decide to spend disposable income on things like outer wear instead. buy outer wear instead of guns? the article says gun owners had the same fear in 2008 and we have yet to see a surge in stringent policies on gun ownership. none from obama so far.

welcome back to "hardball." as you can tell, this has not been a good day for the romney campaign. first came the politico late breaking news that romney trashed obama voters as freeloaders who don't pay income taxes and want the government to take care of them. previously a romney strength, this might explain why the romney campaign is trying for a course correction. joining us right now is former george w. bush and mccain strategist. you've worked on the republican side over the years and i want to ask you -- i was stunned. first of all, it looked like the only group in that poll this sunday that is with romney are people over 65.

if the only people in this country that could vote were under 65 he'd get swamped. you're laughing but it's an amazing situation to be in, to only own the old people. your thoughts and is that one reason why they're advertising to try to get some demos as we call them in this business? >> at least i have a reliable demographic, i can count on those folks to come out anyway. chris, i just remember in 2000 about this same time we called that month black september because we came out of that convention pretty strong and then gore had a really good convention, we were down suddenly three points. suddenly all the guns turned at us. everybody wanted me fired because the ads were terrible. >> okay. your guy, w., pulled it out in the debates. of course that's why you won. that isn't complicated. >> absolutely. that shows why the debates are so important. we haven't had the debates yet, so the point is that romney's got an opportunity. i mean, there's still a couple

of chapters left to play in this game. >> is there a romney personality that will show that we haven't seen yet, a likable guy? i mean it. a charming, debonair romney that will be compassionate and connect with people that we've never met before? >> well, i think people saw a side of reagan in 1980 they hadn't seen in the debates. i think a lot of people who haven't been paying close attention will pay attention. the question is does he have some core to show, some vision, some humanity we haven't seen, and it's been a long campaign and we haven't seen it yet but there's that opportunity, chris. and three points, this is a tight electorate -- >> okay, smart guy, does he have an inner core that you suggest or doesn't he? what's your answer? continue. mark? >> oh, for me. sorry. >> does he have it inside? >> well, as i said, chris, you know, we knew that george w. bush had it. we'd seen a lot of signs of it throughout the campaign. we saw a lot of muscular policy

speeches early on in the campaign, and i'm surprised that there hasn't been more specificity, more policies, something that shows what the broader vision is. i mean, 50 days is not a lot of time left to do that. >> but, mark, you're a wordsmith and you have given me 100 words and all i want is one, yes or no. does he have an inner core of personality and compassion that the american people will find attractive but haven't seen yet? >> chris, i have no idea. i have no idea. i don't work for romney and i haven't seen it yet. >> okay. >> i haven't seen it -- >> i love the answer now. steve, let me go to this whole question. with the campaign in mid-september, the weather has changed, we're in the fall, this is when we have general elections now. the question i have, can you -- romney doesn't fire people, he says he likes to fire people, he doesn't fire campaign people. how does he turn things around to his satisfaction? >> well, i think today's move wasn't so much a change in strategy as it was a distraction. they wanted to take attention off a story written in politico. i don't think he changed

campaign strategies and began to argue the case against the president. he wants to talk about the middle class and who is going to be a better president for the middle class. that's laughable. he's losing that argument by 15 points -- >> a majority of the american people, more than a majority, 53% in "the new york times" poll this weekend say he's out for the rich. only one-fifth of the voters think obama is out for the poor. it's not symmetric. it's overwhelming and the ad are working. >> they're totally working. the other thing that bill clinton did was he took the argument are you better off -- >> look at the number. >> -- and he turned it against them. the president is winning on every key measure that this election will be about, and mitt romney is losing and he's decided to take the case to those measures that he's losing most badly. today he was speaking to a hispanic audience, an audience he's losing by 40 points. needs to go back to talking

about the economy if he wants to have any hope and not talking about all the issues that the president is defeating him soundly on. >> i have to get to this. i don't want -- i want to ask you, mark, because you're a pro and i think you're refusing to answer my question thoroughly was probably a mark of a smart person because i don't think we have any evidence to believe he is this compassionate, wonderful guy because he wouldn't be talking about it. he spent his whole acceptance speech saying i'm a human being. let me ask you how do you knock this idea he's the elitist candidate. 53%, that includes some republicans apparently, who believe he's basically out for the rich. how do you kill that between now and november? >> well, you've got to articulate that you have some real policies that would really affect the middle class, and you can't -- >> would they hurt the rich? is anything he's going to do hurt the rich? i'm sorry. mark is absolutely right. >> so don't change? >> well, if you look at it, the president has a little lead on the president and if you're prosecuting that case, it's a one-point case. you have a chance at the end to win. if you start to prosecute a case that you're losing by 15 points,

you're a loser, you're dumb, and -- >> you know in boxing when a guy gets a cut in their eye and they keep punching to the end, that's what they do. the other guy would punch him and punch him. he's bleeding, keep punching him there. why doesn't romney keep punching the idea obama doesn't know how to fix the economy? >> well, i think steve and i both agree that's what he ought to be doing. that's clearly his opportunity, clearly the spot and he's got to prosecute that argument all the way to the end. i think it's problematic switching arguments in the middle of the trial. >> mark made a good point which is you have to lay out policy

positions that convince people that you're going to improve the situation, whether you're talking about the middle class and if people think you favor the rich -- >> bill clinton did that for obama. >> bill clinton did it for obama. >> he did. >> and mitt romney hasn't done that for himself and hasn't had a surrogate do it for him. policies that people can get their arms around. >> you guys are great. you are both smart. thank you both very much. any way, steve mcmahon, gentlemen. up next, the voter i.d. law in pennsylvania. how difficult it's making it for voters to vote. this is "hardball," the place for politics. buying this juicer online was unbelievable.

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well, we've got new polling in the key senate race in massachusetts. elizabeth warren now has a two-point lead over incumbent scott brown. she is moving. and in a new western new england university poll, warren's lead over brown is six points, 50 to 44. these got something going up there. we'll be right back.

we're back. we've done a lot of stories on voter suppression. i think it's an important subject. today we bring you a report from the front lines of that fight. ann went out and did the job. she went to the busiest dmv office in philly and talked with

people there, not for a new license. they were not there to get a new driver's license. they were there to get a photo i.d. which has been dubbed the card of last resort, people are calling it, so they can simply vote in november. these are registered voters, by the way. these are people that took time off of work and waited in endless lines and filled out forms. all just to vote. tell me -- i'm going to give you more time than i give most people on my show. walk us through -- you found a 50-year-old woman and what it took for her to simply get to vote like she had always had? >> well, first of all, they didn't have a dedicated line for people trying to get their voter i.d. they are there with people trying to get their permits and license and take a test. sort of in there with the masses. and she came in there to try to get a photo i.d. her daughter had told her that she needed something. she had heard about it, so she came in.

first she had to fill out a form that is a request for a nondriver's license, which requires homeland security documentation, like birth certificate, social security card. then you fill that out, then you take it to a clerk who then looks at it it and says, do you have your birth certificate, do you have your social security card, do you have two forms of address and you say no. they say then you have to fill out this other form for the state department to cure i.d. for voting purposes only. and take that, go off again to another clipboard, fill it out, come back, then they call the board of elections. they call the board of elections. they can't check it in the database online, even though you can check your registration online, which i know because i said, i better make sure i'm not still registered in philadelphia. they call on the telephone, they wait, then she gets to affirm that she has no other way of getting the i.d., she doesn't have the other documents, they finally let her sign, check her pay stub, make sure she has an

address, has her picture taken, she emerges finally four hours later. >> there's 200 people, you wait for your number to be called like a butcher shop. you wait and wait until e-38 or b-240 shows up. you wait and wait and wait and have to give it a weekday probably. >> right. >> saturday -- they are only there tuesday through saturday and close around -- they might have the same regular hours on saturday. they are going to finally have evening hours only in philadelphia, only on thursdays, and not until the end of the month because a lot of working people can't go. >> here's my concern. philadelphia is a city of a million and a half people, right? >> uh-huh. yep. >> only 300 people have gotten cards so far. >> that's right. >> that's scary. that means an overwhelming number of people don't have the ability to vote and when are they going to find that out? >> they will find out when they go to the polls and they can't vote. now, 3700 people, i think, that's about right, have gotten the nondriver's license because

you can do more things with that any way. you actually have a government i.d. or anything you need to do. so in philadelphia county. so that's something. >> philly is a city with the least number of drivers. >> that's right. >> i've read that -- i'm reading from -- it's amazing. it's row house people that own their homes, they are not wealthy homes, but they take the subway to the bus and that's how they get around. >> there's a big creative class of young people under 30 and they bike. they don't have a driver's license. >> rent cars when they need one. >> very important enterprise reporting. we've heard a lot about this problem. you've explored how difficult it is for one person to vote. when we return, what you're getting getting with a vote for mitt romney. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

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let me finish tonight with this. do not ask what mitt romney stands for. they want to live off the work and success, a record romney likes of those who do. his words to that group of contributors offered us a bird's eye view that most americans say is not what most of us believe. we believe life can be unfair. some are born to money and great educations.